Educational Excellence, Courtroom Controversies — and Other Top Stories from This Week

Current Events,
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Here’s a quick recap of the week’s top stories from Family Council and our friends:

From Family Council

🎓 Arkansas Department of Education Data Shows Homeschoolers Excelling Under EFA Program: Homeschoolers participating in the Educational Freedom Account (EFA) program under the LEARNS Act outperformed students in private schools on state-mandated tests, according to data that Family Council obtained from the Arkansas Department of Education under the Freedom of Information Act. Keep Reading.

📖 Arkansas State Library Board Advances Rules to Protect Children from Explicit Material: Arkansas is home to many public libraries all across the state, but in recent years, parents and policymakers alike have expressed serious concerns about obscene and explicit children’s books that some librarians have placed on the shelves of their local libraries. Last week, the Arkansas State Library Board advanced a proposal to help protect children from sexually explicit material in public libraries. Keep Reading.

💊 Family Council Joins Brief Asking SCOTUS to Block Mail-Order Abortion Drugs: Last week, Family Council joined 49 other pro-life organizations in a legal brief challenging mail-order abortion drugs before the U.S. Supreme Court. Keep Reading.

🏛️ Case Closed. Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Challenging Arkansas’ Pro-Life Laws: A Pulaski County Circuit Judge has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to undo Arkansas’ pro-life laws. Keep Reading.

🏀 Mid Vermont Christian School Back in Court: Attorneys representing a Christian school in Vermont were back in court on Friday after state officials refused to include the school in state programs. Keep Reading.

💸 Attorneys Say Online Sports Betting Is Bankrupting Families: As states have legalized sports betting, most men ages 18 – 49 now have an active sportsbook account online. Arkansans wagered a record $86.5 million in March alone this year. But this type of gambling is taking a terrible toll on individuals and their families. Bankruptcy attorneys across the country say online sports betting is driving a surge in personal bankruptcies — especially among young men in their 20s and 30s. Keep Reading.

🍼 Guest Column: “There Is No Mama”. A recent video exposed the injustice at the heart of same-sex marriage and commercial surrogacy. In it, a man bouncing a baby on his lap asks, “Who do you want? Dada or Pop?” The baby answered, “Mama!” To which, both the man and his unseen partner behind the camera laughed and said, “There is no Mama.” They continue to badger the child, who then begins to cry. Keep Reading.

From Our Friends

EXCLUSIVE: Acting FDA Commissioner says he’s pro-life, regrets past entanglement with Planned Parenthood. From LiveAction.

Sports Betting Harms Kids and Communities — What Parents Need to Know. From Daily Citizen.

Faithfulness, not Pride. From Breakpoint.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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State Library Board Advances Rules to Protect Children from Explicit Material

Decency, , , ,
Above: The book It’s Perfectly Normal sits on display in the children’s section of the Craighead County Public Library in Jonesboro in this file photo from 2024. The book contains inappropriate illustrations depicting nudity and sexual activity.

Last week, the Arkansas State Library Board advanced a proposal to help protect children from sexually explicit material in public libraries.

Arkansas is home to many public libraries all across the state, and the library board helps oversee them. But in recent years, parents and policymakers alike have expressed serious concerns about obscene and explicit children’s books that some librarians have placed on the shelves of their local libraries.

At its May 8 meeting, the Arkansas Library Board unanimously approved a proposed set of rules requiring public libraries to ensure children under the age of 16 may not check out sexually explicit materials without parental consent.

Under the rules, libraries would also keep explicit material separate from other areas of the library, and could not knowingly advertise explicit material. Libraries that fail to abide by the rules may not receive state funding.

These proposed library rules are a step in the right direction, because too many libraries in Arkansas have made headlines for promoting sexually explicit material to young children.

For example, the Jonesboro public library has been at the center of multiple controversies over its decision to place books with sexually explicit images in its children’s section and for failing to adopt a policy that separates sexual material from children’s books.

The library even went so far as to post on Facebook that it isn’t the library’s responsibility to protect kids from obscenity.

The controversy in Jonesboro escalated to a point that voters finally decided to reduce the library’s millage in 2022.

Other public libraries in Arkansas have included explicit children’s books in their catalogs and failed to separate sexual material from children’s material as well. Some of these books actually contain explicit images of minors engaged in sexual acts.

Families should not have to worry about what their children might see in the children’s section of a library, and taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize library material that is explicit or obscene. These new rules from the State Library Board could help address those concerns.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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